


Half Buried

by nonky



Category: The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 13:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17746547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Prompt by stainofmylove at her ficathon on LJ: Hunger Games, Gale/Katniss - When there's a trap set up for you in every corner of this town, you learn the only way to go is underground.





	Half Buried

Gale was terrible at words. He had to show Katniss every knot on his snares by pulling them apart first, because all he could think to say was that he'd tied them to be strong and to hold his prey. He wasn't used to watching animals slip away and run deep into the forest where he couldn't hope to roust them. His stakes were the lives of his entire family; he couldn't afford to be a bad hunter.

Losing her was worse than failing to bring home food. He had been ready, almost expecting to be chosen. He would be too old soon, and his name was in as many times as was possible. He was going to end up in the mine anyway, so maybe seeing Panem before he died would be more fun than getting buried alive. He knew it might be better to die young instead of being broken year by year. He had been almost ready to go, but they had taken her. He understood why she'd volunteered, but it hurt to think of her head held up in stubborn pride.

When Katniss was gone, he dug her a grave. It wasn't a conscious decision, and he would never have been able to explain why it helped him stay sane. Gale stood stiffly and pointed his eyes at the screen during the Games broadcasts, but he relived every day in the woods with her instead of watching her long and painful execution. He was carefully blank when she and Peeta were shown, because her cousin shouldn't have cared about Katniss' boyfriend. After he was able to slip away, he ducked through the fence and found a stick to break up the earth. What started small was a long, narrow wound by the time he had to sneak home. He returned the next day with a shovel.

It became his downtime, the space in his life where he'd sat with Katniss and talked about a little of everything. He was sure the bodies of the fallen were not returned to their families. The Hunger Games were all about the victors and their brave murders. The people were supposed to celebrate one child killing eleven others.

He dug deeper than a grave, jumping down into it and knocking out one side to keep going. It became a tunnel, a trench in a war he couldn't fight with Katniss. It started angling down toward the coal mines that were waiting to destroy him. Eventually, after a whole day of half-lit hauls of dirt, he had a burrow big enough to lie down.

Exhausted, he pushed his shovel away and lay down. Sweat dried cool on his face, and he closed his dirty hands over his chest. The silence was like her, a comfort, but the cool was lonely. Katniss hated underground. She would be up at the bright end of the tunnel looking green and calling for him to come back.

And he could scream his throat bloody and she wouldn't hear him.


End file.
